Students at the University of Minnesota (U of M) will soon have access to their course textbooks through their e-readers and tablets at a reduced cost. The U of M Bookstores have entered into a two-year partnership with McGraw-Hill Higher Education to make all of the publisher's e-books and adaptive learning products available to U of M students at a discounted rate.

The U of M Bookstores have access to the enrollment and textbook information for each course at the university. With this new arrangement, the bookstores will be able to identify which course materials are part of the McGraw-Hill Higher Education digital catalog and which students require access to those materials. Students will automatically have access to those materials on any browser-enabled device through the university's learning management system. The bookstores will directly bill students' bursar accounts for the materials.

"As McGraw-Hill Education evolves its e-book business model, so are we evolving," said Bob Crabb, director of University of Minnesota Bookstores, in a prepared statement. "We are pleased to partner with McGraw-Hill for this first-of-its-kind program. We view this as a strong opportunity to increase e-book usage on campus while keeping costs down for students. It's also an opportunity for us to expand our traditional retail model and begin to move toward a service bureau model."

This is not the first time U of M has collaborated with McGraw-Hill Education. The university previously participated in an e-book pilot program with the publisher, together with Internet2 and Courseload.